For architects, technologists and engineers
Your drawings are approved and the client asks who will keep an eye on the builder. I'm an answer you can give without taking on the site yourself.
The problem I take off your desk
Most residential practices face the same thing once planning is granted. The client wants someone to run the job. Taking on contract administration means site visits, valuations and difficult conversations about money, none of which is what the practice is set up to do profitably. Declining it means the client appoints a builder unsupervised, and the first you hear is a phone call about something built differently to the drawings.
I take the delivery side and leave the design with you. The client still comes to you for design decisions. I handle tender, contract, programme, stage payments and snagging, and I raise anything that affects design intent with you rather than resolving it on site.
What that protects
- Your design. Changes get priced and agreed in writing, not swapped on site for whatever the merchant had in stock.
- Your fee. You're not absorbing site queries that sit outside your appointment.
- Your reputation. Projects that run badly get remembered by the client as the whole experience, drawings included.
How a referral usually works
- You mention me when the client asks about managing the build.
- I have a free call with them and give an honest view, including telling them when they don't need me.
- If they appoint me, I work to your drawings and specification, and copy you on anything that matters.
No fee passes between us in either direction. I don't pay for referrals and I don't take commission from builders, which is the whole basis of the service.
Questions
Do you charge the architect anything?
No. I'm appointed and paid by the client. There's no fee to you and no referral payment either way, which keeps the recommendation clean.
Will you take over the client relationship?
No. You keep your appointment and your scope. I handle delivery: tender, contract, site checks and payments. If anything touches design intent, it comes back to you.
What if the client only wants help at one stage?
That's common and perfectly fine. A quote review or a handful of key-stage inspections is often all a well-organised client needs.
Do you act as Principal Designer?
No. Under the Welsh regime that role normally sits with the designer in control of the design, which is usually you. I advise the client on making the appointments properly and keep the paperwork straight.
Happy to have a coffee first
If you'd rather see how I work before putting a client my way, send me a project you've got running and I'll talk you through exactly what I'd do on it.